What does transfuse mean?
Transfuse is a formal verb meaning to pour or transfer a liquid from one vessel to another. Its best-known use is medical: doctors and healthcare workers transfuse blood, plasma, or other fluids into a patient's bloodstream, restoring blood volume, replacing essential components, or delivering treatment. The verb can also describe the transfer of a liquid between containers, though this broader sense is less common in everyday speech. Transfuse has a somewhat technical and consequential tone because of its strong association with blood transfusion and emergency treatment. Related forms include the past tense and participle “transfused,” the gerund “transfusing,” and the noun “transfusion,” which names the procedure. The word is useful because it identifies the physical transfer of fluid with more precision than “give” or even the broader “transfer,” while preserving the original idea of pouring something from one place into another.
verbTo pour or transfer a liquid from one vessel to another; especially, to transfer blood or another fluid into a person's bloodstream.
- To transfer blood or another fluid into a person's bloodstream, especially as part of a medical transfusion.
- To pour or transfer a liquid from one vessel or container into another.
"Emergency crews transfused two units of packed red blood cells into the injured patient."
"The hospital transfused the patient with packed red blood cells."
"The technician carefully transfused the solution from one vessel to another."
Transfuse literally means “pour across”: medicine made the word famous for delivering blood, but its roots reach back to the simple movement of liquids.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does transfuse come from?
Transfuse comes from the Latin verb transfundere, formed from trans-, meaning “across,” and fundere, meaning “pour.” Latin transfundere literally meant “pour across” or “pour out,” and English initially used the word for transferring liquid. Its familiar medical sense developed through the practice of transferring blood from one person to another. Related English words such as infuse, effuse, confuse, and profuse were ultimately formed from Latin compounds involving the same root.
Related word forms
How transfuse is actually used
Formal and technical, especially in medicine. It is normally transitive and may take the fluid as the object, as in “transfuse blood,” or the recipient, as in “transfuse a patient.”